I have a suggestion for [the download page](https://nim-lang.org/download.html): a table keeping track of Nim's status with various OS / distro package managers. I'd be willing to help maintain this (to the best of my very limited ability).
Imagine a non-Windows user just discovering Nim, following the installation instructions on the official site, and _going through the trouble of building from source - when their OS / distro package manager already provides the binaries_ installable with one simple command! I think this is fairly likely to happen, because some people who've never heard of Nim before might underestimate its popularity and how many package managers already support it. The download page [currently](https://archive.is/PHjNv) offers no reminder to check that first... Reasons why adding this table would be a good idea: * The easier Nim is to install, the more people will try it. * Most package managers provide automatic update notifications, so fewer Nim devs would fall behind (including suffering and reporting out-of-date bugs). * Some package managers offer helpful version management features, like installing multiple versions and easily switching between them. * This table would show current Nim version in each package manager, which could help people not married to an OS / distro (ex. deploying a Nim application in the cloud) decide which one to use for easiest Nim deployment. * This table would link to package manager Web-sites, where the user can get additional info - including who to nag about updating to the latest Nim release. * For source-based ports systems, adding Nim is the first step to also adding apps that are written in Nim. * This table would be a good opportunity to provide additional links to OS/distro-specific special instructions (ex. [Android Termux](http://stisa.space/articles/compile-nim-on-android/)). * This table could suggest alternate installation possibilities where appropriate (ex. maybe the Debian package binaries work fine on some other Linux distros). * 2017 is the year of the Linux desktop. For reals this time. And so, as the first step in this direction, **a work-in-progress overview of what's currently available is started below**. Let me know if this is a good idea, and I can provide [HTML for the Web-site](https://github.com/nim-lang/website/tree/master/jekyll_prototype), that I will also do my best to help keep up-to-date. * * * **[UNIX]** * FreeBSD ports: [lang/nim 0.16.0](http://www.freshports.org/lang/nim/); [devel/nimble 0.8.2](http://www.freshports.org/devel/nimble/). * OpenBSD ports: [lang/nim 0.16.0](http://openports.se/lang/nim) [(pkg)](http://openbsd.mirrors.pair.com/snapshots/packages/amd64/nim-0.16.0.tgz). * NetBSD/[etc](http://www.pkgsrc.org/#index5h1) pkgsrc: [lang/nim 0.16.0](http://pkgsrc.se/lang/nim) * ... [Joyent provide](https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/) Solaris, Mac, Linux bin pkgs? * ... [ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/QNX/i386/6.5.0_head_20110826/lang/](https://forum.nim-lang.org/postActivity.xml#ftp-ftp-netbsd-org-pub-pkgsrc-packages-qnx-i386-6-5-0-head-20110826-lang), [Minix](ftp://ftp.minix3.org/pub/minix/packages/) bin pkgs AWOL - compile fail? * DragonFlyBSD ports: [lang/nim 0.15.2](https://github.com/DragonFlyBSD/DPorts/tree/master/lang/nim). **[LINUX]** * Gentoo: [nim 0.16.0 ](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-lang/nim) * Debian: [nim 0.16.0-1](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nim); [[wiki]](https://wiki.debian.org/Nim) * Ubuntu: [Ouch!](http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=nim) 0.12.0-2 LTS; 0.13.0-1 stable; 0.15.2-2 beta... (... work in progress, to be edited ...)
